Gardner will take live batting practice today

Via Jeff Bradley, outfielder Brett Gardner will take his hacks in live batting practice today. “I feel great,” he said. “I have hit in the cages this week. Soft toss. And once I hit live on the field, I think I’ll be able to show that I’m 100 percent and ready to play. My body feels like it’s March. I’m excited to get back on the field and help any way I can.”

The 29-year-old Gardner has missed basically the entire season with an elbow injury that (eventually) required surgery. We’ve been hearing that he’s close to being activated as a pinch-runner/defensive specialist for a few days now, though I wonder if this new batting practice stuff means he’ll be able to hit in games as well. That would be huge, especially against right-handed pitchers. Stick Gardner in left, Ichiro Suzuki in right, Nick Swisher at first, Raul Ibanez at DH, and they’re good to go.

I agree putting the best OF D on the field at this time and vs. RHP is huge. Gardner-Jeter-Ichiro 9-1-2.

Better off Eddard

Against lefties, too. Put Gardner in LF, Ichiro in RF, Swish at 1b, Nunie at DH and Andruw Jones as clubhouse greeter.

Kosmo

“clubhouse greeter“ had me laughing.

MannyGeee

Welcome to Yankkes Stadium…. I love you.

Rich in NJ

If he is really healthy (and can stay that way), that can create significant flexibility.

Kosmo

Andruw ? they only need 1 clubhouse greeter.

http://www.twitter.com/_swarlesbarkely Drew

What percent chance does everyone think of him being the Yankees starting LF in the postseason (should they get there)? My guess would be around 20% for the sole reason that I don’t believe he will be inserted into the starting lineup every day and be eased back into things.

Kosmo

if he´s good to go like he says cut him loose. What are the other alternatives?

Laz

Depends how he is swinging. Hitters usually take a bit of time to get going, although he would only have to surpass jones/ibanez.

Better off Eddard

I think it depends if Teixera is back or not. If Teixera is back then no, they’ll go with Ichiro in LF and Swish in RF, Gardner will primarily be a defensive replacement and pinch runner. If Teixera cannot come back then Gardner is a better LF option than anybody else because they would put Ichiro in RF and Swish at 1B. Ibanez could then DH and the defense would be vastly improved.

http://www.twitter.com/_swarlesbarkely Drew

I would completely agree with you, it all does depend on Mark “85%” Teixeira.

The Troll Monger

Oh, you’re on the Mark, Teixeria!

Gene

Are there any issues with his post-season eligibility since he was not technically on the 40-man roster 9/1/12 (he is on the 60-day dl)? I’m just curious because I haven’t read anything where the team has mentioned him playing in the post season.

http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike Axisa

Not at all, he’s eligible. He played earlier in the season and was never out of the organization, just on the DL. Being placed on the 60-day DL doesn’t take you off the 40-man, it just means your spot doesn’t count. The players don’t lose their union benefits or anything.

DJ4K&Monterowasdinero

Please learn how to slide feet first.

Darren

Because that’s how he hurt his elbow?

DJ4K&Monterowasdinero

No because that’s how he will re-agggravate it as the head first slide is a big part of Gardy’s game.

DJ4K&Monterowasdinero

How did he re-aggravate the arm twice in rehab assignments? Swinging, sliding?

RetroRob

Swinging. In each case after a few games (in one case it might have been a single game) of swinging the bat in game conditions, the soreness returned.

Patricia

There could be many clubhouse greeters including Andruw and Girardi. There could be left hand shakers and right hand shakers.

MannyGeee

Platoon Shakers…. Girardi’s binder just exploded

MannyGeee

“My body feels like it’s March”

says the guy who hasnt played basball since damn near March…

FreeAgentSignee

Get well Brett!

JScott

I’d like to know why, at this very late date, is he merely soft tossing?

http://twitter.com/mikhel2 Mikhel

Gardner (LF) / Ichiro (CF) / Swisher (RF) / Teixeira (1B)

is better than:

Ichiro (RF) / KKKKurtis (CF) / Swisher (RF) / Teixeira (1B)

And any iteraction with Ibáñez/Andruw in the OF.

For the simple reason that Gardner only needs to hit 4-for-1 to hit better than Granderson, plus his speed and knowledge of small ball make him more valuable than KKKKurtis with his “all-or-nothing” swing.

Granderson hits a homerun every 14 at bats (every 16 plate appearances), that is once every 4 games. Homeruns are such a big part of Granderson’s hitting that if you take them away (good pitching neutralizes homerun hitters) we only have a 0.172 AVG hitter.

And in top of that, Granderson hits homeruns at a higher pace with the bases clean than with men on base:

So, he has had 149 runners in scoring position in 121 at bats (148 appearances, or chances), and has recorded a hit in 26 occasions, plus 2 walks with the bases loaded and 6 sac-flies.

With men on scoring position, not counting HRs, Granderson has had 34 appearances ending up producing runs, producing a grand total of 37 RBI.

34 productive appearances in 148 chances = 34/148 = 0.229 = 22.9%

22.9% of the time Granderson has had men on scoring position, he has ended up producing at least one run.

The American League average of “effectivity” is 19.19%, so, Granderson has been barely above average producing runs when he doesn’t hit a HR.

Miguel Cabrera “effectivity” is 27.48%, and that is a guy who also hits 30+ HRs every year.

http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike Axisa

Phew, good thing all those homeruns count then.

CUYanks

If we remove all of his hits, he hit 0/428 in all other at bats. That is not very productive. If he doesn’t get a hit, he just basically throws away his at bats. I mean, 0/428!!!??? That’s .000/.000/.000 in at bats where he doesn’t walk or get hit by pitch, either.

thenamestsam

Two things. One, your stat obviously needs a name, because all such brilliant stats should clearly have names. I propose diseffectivity-ness for a player’s OPS in at-bats where they make an out.

Second, while it’s true that Curtis’ diseffectivity-ness of .000 seems very poor, your method is flawed unless you provide some historical context. Examining the historical record, I have discovered that Granderson’s .000 actually places him in a tie for the lowest diseffectivity-ness in the history of the entire major leagues. By this stat, he is currently tied for the least dis-effective season ever!

In conclusion, while I feel your stat may have revolutionized baseball thinking forever, I hope that next time you will do some research before bringing your weak conclusions to the table.

CUYanks

A+ work

http://twitter.com/mikhel2 Mikhel

Of course we could also discard players under the league minimum of at-bats (adding AB+Walks+HBP+Sacrifices to include more players) from the past 5 seasons, then calculate the “effectivity” of every one, and normalize to see how good a player is in relation to recent history data.

CUYanks

Wow, good point, they should make a stat for all those AB+Walks+HBP+Sacrifices. Heck, they should even throw in sacrifice flies/catcher’s interference. They could use that stat to judge eligibility for batting titles, etc. But what would they call it?

http://twitter.com/bryanl26 Bryan L

2 + 2 = fish?

Matt

It’s so dumb, it’s brilliant.

neaks

I completely agree with you Mikhel, but you have to think about Gardner –

Gardner mostly hits singles, but also some doubles and triples. Last year Gardner had 132 hits in 510 AB (.259) – but if you subtract the singles, doubles, and triples, Gardner had only 7 hits in 385 chances, an ABYSMAL 0.019 average. How can you recommend him over KKKKurtis?

The flip side, though, is that in those 7 hits, he slugged 4.000. That’s pretty incredible.

CUYanks

Yes, but he benefited from an unsustainable indeterminate BABIP during those 7 at bats. So you have to imagine he’ll regress.

Mickey Mantle’s Outstanding Experience

You know what, I’m going to indulge this, because there’s a few things I appreciate about this (not the actual analysis, or the validity of the “effectivity” stat), but I like that you didn’t just stop at .172 avg without home runs, and actually looked at how other hitters do minus their home runs too.

But here’s where I lose you – I don’t see how you got your conclusion from your analysis. Granderson’s “effectivity” is basically halfway between league average and the best hitter in the league’s (45% of the way there) which is more than “barely above average”. Are you expecting him to be as good as Cabrera (the best hitter in the league and a top 5 MVP candidate)? Is well above average worthy of being benched? For comparison someone with a batting average 45% of the way between league average and Cabrera would be 4th on the Yankees, slightly behind Cano. I don’t agree with your “effectivity” stat, but if I did I don’t see how it shows that Granderson isn’t good.

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